A former senatorial candidate on Monday urged the Supreme Administrative Court to suspend the announcement of the Senate election result pending its ruling on the poll agency's handling of the Senate race.
In a petition, Jaturan Boonbenjarat, also secretary-general of the Clean Politics group, accused the Election Commission (EC) of duty negligence in examining the qualifications of senatorial candidates, which could affect the integrity of the election process.
Mr Jaturan asked the court to hold an urgent hearing to consider suspending the EC's announcement of the Senate election result until the qualifications of the 200 senators-elect and the 100 others on the reserve list were thoroughly checked.
The EC is expected to announce the election result today or tomorrow.
He alleged that the Senate election process was rigged by political and interest groups as several candidates gave false information about their professional backgrounds.
Mr Jaturan insisted that he did not have any ill intention to have the Senate election nullified, saying all he wanted was for the EC to examine the winners' qualifications fully.
"Several people have spoken out about irregularities," he said. "I'm afraid that some of these senators-elect are not qualified to work and could be influenced by some interest groups. So I petitioned the court to hold an urgent hearing before the result is announced."
He said he disagreed with and did not trust the "endorse first, disqualify later" approach advocated by the EC.
Also, former senatorial candidates led by Pol Lt Gen Khamrop Panyakaew and Chakkrapong Khongpanya petitioned the EC to delay announcing the election result until a detailed investigation was conducted.
Panich Charoenphao, an ex-candidate who stood in Autthaya's Bang Pa-in district, also asked the EC to disqualify one of the winners in Professional Group 7 (labour) for allegedly making false claims about his qualifications.
Altogether, the 200 senators-elect were drawn from 20 professional groups, ten from each group.
He said he had documents to support his allegations against the person and handed them to the EC for use in an investigation. He also threatened to sue the EC for malfeasance if it refused to launch a probe into this case.